The subject matter of the present invention relates generally to ball projecting apparatus and in particular to such apparatus used as baseball hitting trainers which project a hollow practice ball toward the batter. The ball projecting apparatus of the present invention employs a spring biased plunger means for striking a hollow ball positioned within a guide tube and an adjustment means for adjusting the point of impact on the ball to cause the path of the ball to curve right or left. As a result the ball projecting apparatus more closely simulates a pitched baseball.
The ball projecting apparatus of the present invention is especially useful as a baseball hitting trainer for children and young athletes to improve the hand to eye coordination. It uses hollow lightweight plastic balls so that it is safe to use indoors for year-round batting training. It is suitable for batters of different ages and skill levels because the speed of the projected ball and its trajectory can be adjusted between fast or slow and straight or curved.
Previously, it has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,157 of Prokupek to provide a spring type ball projecting device for regulation baseballs. This device is in the form of a trigger operated hand gun containing a spring biased thrust member which is released from a cocked position by a trigger operated pawl to project a baseball resting on such thrust member out of the gun barrel. This prior device is unsafe because it uses solid, heavy balls and a powerful spring. There is no adjustment means for adjusting the impact point of the thrust member off center on the ball to cause the path of the ball to curve. Also the upper half of the guide tube is not removed to reduce resistance to the lateral spin of the ball across its direction of travel in the manner of the present invention.
It has been previously proposed to provide toys and games with ball projecting apparatus having spring biased plungers for striking marbels or other solid balls within a tube as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,330,511 of Bajusz, No. 1,556,846 of Kovacs and No. 3,002,294 of Jackson. However, none of these ball projecting apparatus employ an adjustment means for adjusting the point of impact of the plunger on a hollow ball or remove the top half of the guide tube to reduce resistance to lateral spin of the ball to cause the path of the ball to curve in the manner of the present invention. Thus none of these prior devices are suitable for a baseball hitting trainer.
The ball projector shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,419,538 of Blando employs a spring driven slide having a ball holding member at one end thereof for pushing the ball down a baseplate and up a deflector ramp which deflects the ball upward. However, unlike the ball projecting apparatus of the present invention, the slide does not impact the ball and there is no guide tube and no adjustment means for adjusting the point of impact on the ball to cause the path of the ball to curve to the left or right in the manner of a pitched baseball.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,627,120 of Sayegh shows a ball projecting game apparatus including a spring biased plunger means formed by three separate segments which are coupled together by a tension spring extending through the hollow segments. The striking segment member is held by the end of a housing against retraction and is impacted by the intermediate segment member when the latter is struck by a pull segment member after stretching of the spring and release of the pull member. This hammer blow type segmented plunger means is totally impractical as a ball projecting device for a baseball hitting trainer. Thus apparently most of the impact force of the hammer blow is absorbed by the mass of the striking member rather than the ball. In addition there is no means for adjusting the point of impact on the ball to cause the path of the ball to curve to the left or right.